| Tiberius Smith's Bible Dictionary
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| Tibe'rius.
(In full, Tiberius Claudius Nero). The second Roman emperor, successor
of Augustus, who began to reign A.D. 14, and reigned until A.D. 37. He
was the son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia, and hence, a stepson of
Augustus. He was born at Rome on the 18th of November, B.C. 45. He
became emperor in his fifty-fifth year, after having distinguished
himself as a commander in various wars, and having evidenced talents, of
a high order as an orator, and an administrator of civil affairs. He even gained the reputation of possessing the sterner virtues of the Roman character, and was regarded as entirely worthy of the imperial honors, to which his birth, and supposed personal merits, at length, opened the way. Yet, on being raised to the supreme power, he suddenly became, or showed himself to be a very different man. His subsequent life was one of inactivity, sloth and self-indulgence. He was despotic in his government, cruel and vindictive in his disposition. He died A.D. 37, at the age of 78, after a reign of twenty-three years. Our Saviour was put to death, in the reign of Tiberius. |
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| Taken from: Smith's Bible Dictionary by Dr. William Smith (1884) |
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